Victoria No. 203

Welcome back to the land of remakes, and let me introduce you to the latest film to join the bandwagon—Victoria No. 203. The 1970’s hit starring Ashok Kumar, Pran, Naveen Nischol and Saira Banu in lead roles makes a re-appearance with Anupam Kher, Om Puri, Jimmy Shergill, Preeti Jhangiani and Sonia Mehra. It’s directed by Anant Mahadevan, who last rose to the surface with the musical success Aksar. Viju Shah, who has in the past given us great music, seems to have slowly faded away into anonymity. Naturally, when you realize he is composing the music for the film, it takes you by surprise.

From the word go, the album is hatke. The title track, obviously called Victoria 203 is an English-Hindi track with Dominique doing the honors. It’s not the type of track that’s going to become a rage, but it does give you insight into the suspense mood of the film. Shah’s composition is actually noteworthy, but the lyrics fall short of anything exciting. Luckily enough, it’s the music that is the focal point of this track and it would work quite well as an instrumental.

Udit Narayan and Amit Kumar team up for Do Bechare, which is another innovative track that leaves an impression for its risqu